Uma Cruz para Balzac: A Comédia Humana e a censura da Santa Sé

Abstract

This article sheds light on fragments of The Human Comedy in which Honoré de Balzac uses literature as a means to profane, reinvent, and even promote a revolution in religious thought in the 19th century. The novelist was condemned four times for eighteen works by the Index — Index Librorum Prohibitorum —, the catalogue of books censored by the Holy See. Based on research by Loïc Artiaga and Jean-Baptiste Amadieu, the article also highlights passages from Balzac's novels, novellas, and short stories that were labeled as heretical, as well as the negative reactions of the cardinals who called for the condemnation of the writer after reading his texts.